Credit: Special Arrangement
Mike Flanagan, best known for horror, trades jump scares for tenderness in The Life of Chuck. Based on a Stephen King short story, it opens with a mystery and a billboard thanking Chuck for '39 great years'. What follows is a man’s life told in reverse, and somehow, it all adds up.
The film unfolds across three parts of Chuck’s life, moving backwards. An apocalypse, a street dance, and his childhood make up the three acts. No big mystery or dramatic twist, just small, carefully chosen moments that slowly reveal who he was and why he mattered. It feels unusual at first, then quietly emotional by the end. A dance, moving through a street, a kitchen, and a ballroom, threads across the acts and becomes the film’s unexpected emotional core.
Tom Hiddleston plays Charles Krantz or Chuck, like a man who knows time is running out but still enjoys the small stuff. His line, “I am wonderful, I deserve to be wonderful, and I contain multitudes,” sounds like it belongs in a self-help book, but somehow it fits. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan bring warmth. Mark Hamill appears late with surprising gentleness. The camerawork is steady and unfussy. No tricks, no noise. The music leans ominous but never spooky. It sits in the background, holding the film’s strange, thoughtful tone.
Mike Flanagan’s movie is slow, a little odd, full of feeling and not for everyone. Not quite horror. Not quite sci-fi. Just a beautiful goodbye, and one of the better Stephen King adaptations in recent times.